Chapter 107: Test

The world is bigger than one can imagine.

We cannot say that we know it... because we do not.

We must recognize that thousands of kilometers away, something can happen that for us is unimaginable.

Maybe at this moment, it is happening...

Maybe at this very moment in some remote place, someone is being assaulted...

Maybe someone is fighting against monsters...

However, I would like to think that in those ‘maybes’ there are also heroes to be found.

Heroes who stop the unimaginable, save innocents and stand up to those monsters.

Those untitled and unrecognized heroes who are a forgotten blip in history.

We all know or have heard stories of the First Heroine, the Steel Giant, the Silver Light, Director Vincent, and other highly recognized heroes in the past.

But now they also exist.

In Africa, where for many it is considered a ‘poor’, ‘ruined’ and uncivilized continent or, as others call it, ‘no-man’s-land’.

In that place, move heroes who have no titles, who remain in obscurity, saving innocents and helping.

On the dangerous continent of Africa, there are heroes whose names are only remembered by those who once saved.

They do not descend from the sky waiting for the cameras to photograph them.

They just step forward to stop the danger.

Those heroes I am talking about.

While the mainstream media says the world is peaceful, in a corner of a forgotten continent, a war was going on.

A war that devastated cities and divided families.

A war with cruel soldiers who could use their tanks to shoot innocents and in the face of that cruelty.

Faced with that desperation, there are always heroes.

Heroes who help those cities and reunite families.

Heroes who face tank fire to save those innocents.

In Africa, there are those heroes who may be scattered around the world, with the only difference that we do not realize it.

Today I will talk about those heroes.

Heroes who brought a large group of refugees to a new home.

Heroes who stood up to protect their families, their colleagues, their friends or simply protecting strangers.

Today I will tell you about heroes without titles.

******

On a cab ride, Aurora read the article without holding back her smile.

“Reading Érica’s article again?” Alice asked as she saw her friend looking at her holographic watch.

“I just found it in another magazine, that was all,” Aurora replied and, with a smile, she muttered. “I didn’t expect it to get so much recognition.”

Following Érica’s introduction, it detailed the Ark mission by gathering interviews from the militiamen, refugees, and adventurers who took part in the mission.

Basically detailing the mission from another perspective.

It had more recognition in the UK and was published in other magazines.

While it didn’t go so far as to change people’s perspectives, it certainly informed other people of what was going on in Africa.

It also indirectly made Erica popular, but since the article focused on the militiamen, the effect was not that great.

Disembarking from the cab, they both headed for their supposed brother’s mansion.

As usual, they found some tourists taking pictures, and just as before, Aurora ignored them and walked into the place.

“I think mother would be interested in you investigating your brother,” Alice said as she entered the building beside her.

“Possibly,” Aurora replied with a nod.

Her family hid this mansion and only revealed when she was sent to the academy.

Her mother surely wanted once she gained curiosity about her brother, researching it and perhaps finding any details about him.

It was hard to know what her mother’s intention was, but...

“I have no connection to my brother, and my parents always refused to talk about him when I was younger. I’m too busy now to get into research,” Aurora commented with a shrug as she walked into the mansion.

Even though they were gone for a month, the inside of the mansion remained just as clean as ever.

Aurora ignored her gluttonous sister’s gaze.

At the time, she was curious and asked about him.

However, perhaps because of her youth, her parents refused to talk about her brother and since when she grew up, she had other matters to worry about; she lost interest and stopped asking.

“You want to investigate our brother?” Aurora asked with an amused smile.

They were both sisters, and thus that individual their parents never spoke of was also that glutton’s brother.

Alice shook her head immediately.

“I think it would be impossible to call him ‘brother’,” Alice muttered in a slightly strange tone.

Like her, Alice had never seen her ‘brother’ and thus had no connection or relationship.

And Alice was someone who prioritized closeness and relationships, which meant that even if her parents introduced him to her, she wouldn’t call him ‘brother’.

“I guess I’ll have to meet him at some point, but it won’t be now. Besides, he’s still alive, so it doesn’t make too much sense to wonder about him.” Aurora commented as she checked her holographic watch and noticing Alice looking at her, surprised by her comment, she explained. “Mother doesn’t talk about him like he’s dead. That means he’s alive.”

It was a basic analysis Aurora made when her mother was given to talking about her brother.

The way her mother referred to her brother made it clear that he was still alive.

Leaving even greater questions about the reasons she had not met him and, in the end, it was all the same to Aurora.

She had no interest in finding those answers or seeking them.

“Instead of wondering about my unknown brother, I’d rather take care of our current mission.” Aurora pointed out, checking some documents on her holographic watch.

The mission was to protect an important individual.

However, it was the identity of that individual that was most problematic.

“It’s arriving at the academy tomorrow, isn’t it?” Alice asked, opening a bag of chips.

Aurora nodded.

The next day, the academy would officially begin, and it was at that time that they would come face to face with their protection target.

And the other party would also meet them and they could determine the different ins and outs of the mission.

There were many forms of “protection”; to monitor the target all day or just protect it when they needed it.

It was even possible that their target did not want protection, and they had to do something more discreet.

While Urfin had mentioned that they were the ‘extra’ security, Aurora wanted to talk to her target to make sure there was no conflict during their work.

She was doing Urfin a favor and needed to do a good job while waiting for the changes to happen.

“I don’t think it’s that complicated. Our clients seem to be more than meets the eye.” Alice said, as she ate some chips.

Aurora looked at the image of her target and, seeing its pointed ears, she nodded in agreement with Alice.

Their target was more interesting than she had expected and she had to admit that she understood the reason why Urfin, an important member of the Falion Empire, wanted them to take the mission.

Putting that issue aside, Aurora looked at Érica’s article and asked. “Do you think she’s doing well?”

She wondered about whether Érica was doing well in her training.

“I guess...”

******

Érica, for the first time in her life, shivered with cold.

A great icy blizzard covered her vision and all she could see was snow... Too much snow.

It was so cold that an ice mage like her was freezing.

However, not only did she feel cold, she felt very strong.

If she had trouble casting any spells in the desert, here she felt like she could cast dozens of her best spells.

She was in the ‘Andes Mountains’ in the South American Empire, which after the ‘Great Cataclysm’ had become a habitat for elementals and ice-type creatures.

This place was a natural training ground for ice mages like her.

Walking towards her target, Érica took a deep breath as she felt her body freeze.

Normally, an ice mage would have a natural resistance to cold, however, this place surpassed it.

Walking in the hills, traversing some cliffs and stony paths as the ice mist covered her vision, was not pleasant at all.

She could employ her magical energy to generate a barrier to contain the cold as she walked, and that was her only advantage in this place.

When she had told her father that she wanted to train to move up the ranks, her father had sent her here and Érica had accepted it.

It wasn’t like any training.

She had to climb the Andes Mountains by herself and if she made it to the top, she could have a place to stay and train.

Those were the rules of the elementals and other creatures that inhabited this icy region.

Flying alone would lead her to be caught in an ice storm and coming accompanied was against the rules.

So she had to do it alone and although the path was not complicated to get lost, the storm that appeared led to her having problems.

This was a training that tested a mage’s ability, her adaptability, and also the strength to keep going on her own without depending on anyone else.

And that was what Érica was doing.

If it had been earlier, perhaps she would have headed elsewhere, and it was normal for her to choose another place where her father could find excellent academies and personalized training areas for her.

Without having to walk on the stone, while her legs trembled and her body shivered from the cold.

However, since arriving from Africa, Érica had wanted to become stronger and understood that in order to achieve that strength, she needed to push herself and her abilities to the limit.

“I might be late for the academy,” Érica muttered as she rubbed her hands together and continued her journey.

With every step she took between the rocks, she was finding it harder and harder and at this point; it was hard to tell if she was going in the right direction or had literally lost her way.

The only reason that kept her walking was that the idea was to climb the mountain and as long as she walked forward, climbing the steep path, she would make it.

And the problem with this endless journey was that it was difficult to pinpoint how long it would take with her training.

It did not cross her mind that she would not make it to the top, because for her to reach the top was a given. However, how long it would take was a different matter.

She supposed it would take about a month to achieve her goal if she was lucky and the place was as nice as others said.

Since it was personal training, the Hero Academy allowed it, as they wanted students to improve themselves regardless of whether it was inside or outside the academy.

The point was, she didn’t know what was coming this second half of the year at the academy, and she had to admit it; they intrigued her.

At least the first part of the year was different, and it was because they changed the entire first-year program and she hoped that this second half would be different as well.

She had to admit; she was eager to take part in any event the academy could come up with.

“I just have to make it to the top to get a place to train,” Érica muttered, moving forward through the snow and heavy blizzard.

Unnoticed in the sky, an elemental watched as she went through this test.

A test that gave her a pass to train in one of the best areas for ice mages.